Celebrating Nature: The TON Orchestra Wind Quintet, Sat., Nov. 16, 5pm. Free admission

Please join us for a program of works by American composers inspired by the natural world. These compositions celebrate the beauty of nature, even as we contemplate its fragility -- including right here in the Hudson Valley. The evening will highlight two brilliant woman composers, Amy Beach and Jennifer Higdon, as well as works by Irving Fine, Vincent Persichetti, and Samuel Barber. Reservations at rhoveninc@gmail.com Painting by Frederic Church, Clouds Over Olana, 1872 Program   Jennifer Higdon - Autumn Music Amy Beach - Pastorale Irving Fine - Partita for Wind Quintet intermission Vincent Persichetti - Pastoral Samuel Barber - Summer Music Meet the Musicians Newly appointed flutist of the Albany Symphony, Matthew Ross has enjoyed great variety in his career thus far. As a soloist, he has won prizes in competitions across the country, including New York, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Nashville, Dallas, and Houston. These successes lead to Matthew giving the premiere performance of a series of works by Glen Cortese at the 2012 National Flute Association Convention, and collaborating with Jason Moran on a multimedia recital of art and chamber music at the Park Avenue Armory in 2016. Prior to his appointment in Albany, he has performed with the Cincinnati Opera Orchestra, Queen City Chamber Opera, and Dayton Philharmonic, as well as in numerous pit orchestras on Broadway. Matthew is a Yamaha Performing Artist. Equally adept on the oboe and English horn, Regina Brady is a member of The Orchestra Now at Bard College. She recently completed the Master of Music degree at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Anne Marie Gabriele, and Ariana Ghez. She played both oboe and English horn with the Colburn and Oberlin orchestras. On the Colburn Chamber Music Society series, Ms. Brady had the opportunity to perform with Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Ms. Brady is a passionate advocate for new music, and has collaborated with Los Angeles based new music ensemble, wild Up.  As a member of the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, she was chosen to perform on a special concert series in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art. Ms. Brady has been a fellow at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival, the Texas Music Festival, and the Sarasota Music Festival. Prior to her studies at Colburn, she completed the double-degree program at Oberlin College and Conservatory, where she majored in neuroscience and oboe performance, studying with Robert Walters. A native of White Plains, New York, she is also a graduate of the Juilliard Pre-College Division where she studied with Richard Dallessio. Ye Hu grew up in Shanghai in a musical family, beginning the clarinet at age 11 studying with her father. She attended the music middle and high school affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory before moving to the United States and earning both her B.M. and M.M degrees from the New England Conservatory. She has been heard with orchestras in the United States and China and attended the Orford Music Festival in 2016. This is her second season as a fellow with The Orchestra Now. Her major teachers include renowned soloist Richard Stoltzman and Boston Symphony Orchestra clarinetist Tom Martin. Emily Buehler, hailing from North Wales PA, is in her second year at The Orchestra Now. She finished her master's degree in 2018 in horn performance and pedagogy. Her time at Penn State was spent as the teaching assistant where she taught horn minor lessons, undergraduate lessons, pedagogy classes, and music education methods classes, and studying with Lisa Bontrager! Emily holds two degrees from her undergraduate institution, the Eastman School of Music: Horn Performance and Music Education, where she studied with Peter Kurau. While at Eastman, Emily was also awarded a Performer’s Certificate. Emily began musical studies on the piano and later began the cello. She entered the world of brass playing by choosing the euphonium in fourth grade, switching to horn her junior year of high school. Emily has worked on residential life/ administrative staff for summer festivals including the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Chautauqua Summer Festival, and the Philadelphia International Music Festival. One of her favorite ways of making music is with chamber ensembles, and has been able to work in a variety of them during her time before The Orchestra Now, and is thankfully keeping that up now! Bassoonist Matthew Gregoire began his studies on the flute at age 9 before switching to the bassoon after seeing the New York Philharmonic perform a pops concert on a public television broadcast. He began taking lessons with Eleanor Taylor of Durham, New Hampshire, and attended youth training programs in Boston and Portland, Maine. He since has received degrees in bassoon performance from the Eastman School of Music and the Yale School of Music, where he studied with John Hunt and Frank Morelli, respectively. Matthew has made appearances at the Chautauqua Music Festival, Colorado College Summer Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and Vermont Mozart Festival, and has been a guest musician with the Springfield (MA) Symphony Orchestra and the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston. In September, Matthew won the section bassoon audition for the President’s Own Marine Band and Chamber Orchestra, and will relocate to Washington DC in the spring. Matthew is currently in his second year of The Orchestra Now.